Generally, a refrigerator is an apparatus that may keep food fresh for a certain duration by cooling a storage compartment (e.g. a freezing compartment or a refrigerating compartment) while repeating a refrigeration cycle.
The refrigerator includes a compressor, which compresses refrigerant, circulating through a refrigeration cycle, into high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant. The refrigerant, compressed in the compressor, cools air while passing through a heat exchanger, and the cooled air is supplied into the freezing compartment or the refrigerating compartment.
The refrigerator has a configuration in which the freezing compartment is at the upper side and the freezing compartment is at the lower side. A side by side type refrigerator may be configured such that the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment are arranged on the left and right sides, respectively, so as to be adjacent to each other.
In addition, there is another type of refrigerator in which a single storage compartment, provided at the upper side or the lower side, may be opened by two doors, which are arranged side by side.
In the case where two doors are arranged side by side to open or close a single storage compartment, a pillar is installed on one of the two doors. The pillar is provided at any one of the two doors, and functions to increase the sealing efficiency of the storage compartment by coming into contact with the two doors when the two doors seal the storage compartment.
In the related art, in order to rotate the pillar, an inner case of the refrigerator is generally provided with a structure including a protrusion and a guide groove for guiding the rotation of the pillar.
Because the structure for guiding the rotation of the pillar needs to protrude downward from the upper end of the inner case, the related art causes the inconvenience of a user when the user uses a storage compartment.
In addition, in the state in which the door provided with the pillar seals the storage compartment, the pillar may block the path along which a drawer installed in the refrigerator moves because the pillar is moved away and unfolded from the corresponding door. Therefore, in the case where the refrigerator includes two drawers arranged parallel to each other, the drawers must have different widths.
In addition, in consideration of the fact that the pillar is unfolded, in the case where a basket is installed on the door so as to be rotated together with the door, the basket requires a gently curved corner portion so as not to come into contact with the unfolded pillar, which may result in a reduction in the storage capacity of the basket.